To not know if describing a person as coloured is politically incorrect.

[WhenSheWasBadSheWasHorrid]

Was talking to a friend today and I mentioned I had met one of his colleagues (but I wasn't sure who). He said. Oh was she a coloured lady?

I said yes and we each knew who it was I had met. I was a bit taken aback as you don't really hear the word coloured used anymore. But it was probably the best way to describe her (kind of Mediterranean / Indian).

Was I being too politically correct for being at the way he described her?

In Irish (Gaeilge/Gaelic), a black person is a 'duine gorm'. This is literally a blue person. A European is 'duine geal' or light/bright person. I think scots gaelic is the same for 'blue' person.

For Halle Berry to say her daughter is black 'cos she agrees with definition in historically hateful repressive legislation is quite something.

Yeah quite - my dm is from african country which was under british rule at the time - this was the term at the time. My dm refers to herself as 'coloured' and I was deemed 'coloured' when my parents wanted to go to south africa for a holiday way back when, and it meant my mum and I would stay in different accomodation from my father (ie we coudn't stay at the same hotel as a family).

I think what pisses off my mum is that she was under british colonial rule and so referred to herself and her offspring as coloured and now she's being told by the british AGAIN what to call herself.

She is nothing like ignorant and she feels british people are so concerned about words in a country that allows so much racism (even to her) in terms of employment and violence against who are not white, and access to facilities etc. but forget all that she's just ingorant because she was deemed 'coloured' by british colonial rule and it's part of her english vocab and now she's being vilified for the same thing.

But of course - she's IGNORANT ACCORDING TO TETHERS - because as a 72 year old non white woman with no wierdo views on other cultures forcing her to be politically correct and having not offened anyone (because she doesn't use this term expect about herself and offspring) means that britain is great. great place.

Not calling someone coloured means that young boys are not murdered, young people are NOT denied access to great jobs and education etc. because we don't use bad terminology.

That's my greatest fear - that this massive issue with being politically correct with words that are so scrutinsed and ever changing takes away from great injustices in society which is poverty, access to decent eduction and jobs and violence that's inflicted on sectors of our communities.

But don't worry about that - lets just vilify people who have no influence over society and scrutinise words.

That's the problem with british society - we need to respect ourselves and get ourselves up and running. Jobs for all young people and inspire them with hope.

"But of course - she's IGNORANT ACCORDING TO TETHERS "

Dear Lord. I have asked if she is IGNORANT OF THE FACT THAT 'COLOURED' IS A RACIST TERM. Do you know what ignorant means?

"Not calling someone coloured means that young boys are not murdered, young people are NOT denied access to great jobs and education etc. because we don't use bad terminology."

It's not either/or. Both things could happen- imagine it.

BoldieGoldie, you are spectacularly missing the point about Halle Berry, I think. She is not agreeing with the Jim Crow laws: she is defiantly subverting them by taking pride in the heritage which previously condemned anybody with Black ancestry to shoddy inhuman treatment. It is a gesture of solidarity with the oppressed, and an acknowledgment of their struggle.

No, I just don't agree with the dialectics. I think it still reduces people. In any event I guess she said it to have a dig at the ex. Of course, it could then be dressed up in principles.

terminology in this area is not "rapidly changing". A poster upthread complained she had to remind herself of the "new words" since its only 30-50 YEARS since this was acceptable.

Really, a few decades and you're still confused? You've got bigger problems than this then.....

To all the poeple who say they didn't know and are 'getting to grips with new terminology' when was the last time you heard it?

Dp's parents did a whole 'I don't understand why you can't call people coloured or say black people look like golliwogs' thing over Xmas and DP claims it is just ignorance and doesn't mean they are racist.

I think it would have to be pretty deliberate and therefore malicious decision if you are in your 50s to not relaise that the word hasn't been broadcast or used in polite company for several decades. AIBU?

I think that's quite reductive- her sense of identity is politically much bigger than her relationship with her ex. I think that it diminishes the bigger point: we can only speculate as to her personal motivations, I suppose, but it is still absolutely legitimate for somebody to highlight struggle and resistance as central to their experience.

some people, especially the older generation and those from small towns etc where multiculturalism hasn't really made huge inroads might not be as PC and up to date as those from more enlightened parts of the UK. You could discuss it to them and try and bring them up to date.

Tethers - she knows that the british have now changed their mind about the term coloured. She doesn't haven't any view on the term although she knows that it was OK once and now it's not.

I guess she'd ask who is this tethers person to tell me what is right and wrong.

I agree about the term 'coloured ' and I'd never use it even. But I'm coloured and from many african countries point of view I am coloured but it doesn't bother me.

So who are you to say that my mum is ignorant in this matter? What exactly are your 'credentials'? I do agree that coloured isn't a term to be used but it was introduced to my mum by her authorities - and english isn't her main language and she's stuck with it (that's perfectly normal in terms of language development). She doesn't offend people and she doen't have to make the effort not to offend (aka political correctness)

Your issue is that she is ignorant? Really LOL? No she's not - but she's not changing her language now. Life's too short - she's old and it's not a priority.

giveitago, the word 'ignorant' in this context is clearly a stumbling block. You have fixated on it. It's almost like you find it offensive...

With that in mind, I'll change my wording (seems relevant to the thread): A person who uses the word 'coloured' (in this case, your mum) either does not know that it is offensive or knows and does not care and continues to use it. From what you are saying, your mum is in the latter category.

If she calls people 'coloured', she will offend someone. If she is happy to do so, then that is her decision. 'Coloured' is a racist term.

Please can some one link to a Web site that lists once and for all what is and isn't PC and non racist this week.

We don't all live in multi cultural areas.
I have always thought of my lovely university flat mate of 20 years ago as coloured.
Being of African heritage I suppose I should call her black, but she wasn't. Her boy friend was, but she had far paler skin and freckles.
She was no more black than I'm blond.

DD2s friend is Thai. This makes it simple (as does knowing her name, but that's cheating), but assuming I saw her and didn't know her exact nationality how would I describe her??

I used the word coloured in conversation at work a couple of years ago. I got some shocked looks from my colleagues, who said it was racist. Well nobody told me. When I was younger it was 'black' that was offensive. Back then if you said 'black' you may as well have said 'ni**er'.

I really have no time for all these people who are shocked by such an innocent term, spoken without any malice. In the main, it is the intent that makes something racist and not the actual word, particularly when meanings change over time and people haven't picked up on it.

say thank you custy

The reality of some of our lives is that there were no ethnic minority children in our schools. Well I was the minority being English and living in Wales.

I then went to university in a large Multicultural city, with friends and flat mates of various backgrounds and religions. None of whom ever mentioned any of this stuff they just got on with student life.
For the last 14 years I've been a SAHM in relatively rural areas. We have a fair few east Europeans, but very very few other ethnic minorities. Those who do find themselves here are very bright technical types just getting on with life.

Custy I don't do FB

When I was growing up Black was an offensive term for a coloured person.

Black people preferred to be called coloured.

The generation after me changed the rules and my grandchildren will probably use another descriptive other than black.

The one thing I haven't seen in any of these posts is:

What term are you supposed to use if one if required?

For instance I was in the phone shop last week for a repair pick up. The male assistant who was possibly of Asian origin asked me which person had served me last time I was in. Since at least 30 people work there I needed to describe the previous assistant physically. The guy in question was quite dark skinned but not black. I really floundered, and after having described his height, hair and age, I finally blurted out - "A bit darker than you". The guy understood straight away and seemed happy with my description.

In this sort of situation it just isn't possible to refer to someone's origins to describe them physically. A mixed race person may look similar to a British Asian.

I keep telling my mum that "coloured" is offensive but she doesn't seem to believe me. She does live in a very monocultural small town, so TBH, I think the issue is more that she doesn't tend to have cause to describe anybody's race very often and so it doesn't come up. Even the town that I live in which is bigger and next to it is very white, there is a sizeable Asian and Polish population, but aside from that everyone is white and British.

A black woman sat next to me on the bus the other day and DS told me I should have a brown face, like that lady. Then he started announcing what colour face everyone had on the bus, it was quite embarrassing I just said "Yes DS everyone has different coloured faces." and then when we got off the bus I explained that it was quite rude to talk about the colour of someone's face and that some people might be upset by it, and asked him not to do it in future. I don't know if this was right, though.

The next day we came home quite late and it was dark and I was standing outside our front door and he said "You have your brown face on, Mummy, now!" Not entirely sure what I should have said to that!

I wonder at the age of many posters. I am nearly forty, and was taught as a kid that the word coloured was offensive.

I also don't get the comments about people being unable to change because they are in their 70s etc. My parents elderly but are able to change their language if they discover that certain terms are offensive. in fact, i think they would be quite offended themselves at the suggestion. More to the point, they wouldn't dream of using word like "coloured" as they have known for years that certain words aren't acceptable. And they might be old now but they wouldn't have been back then.

Being old doesn't automatically absolve you of responsibility.

Being old doesn't automatically absolve you of responsibility

Are you old?

When you're old and the new term for black is coloured are you still going to say black?

Will you be au fait with changing goalposts?

startail...oh how i laugh

i dont have a tv and i read bronte daily.

troisgarcons

It can be considered racist as it implies there are white people and then there is everyone else as one group.

There is also the South African apartheide when it was one of many classifications.

C0smos you are absolutely NOT allowed to ask for race here in SA. I am in HR and because of AA, you may state "Affirmative Action candidate needed", BEE candidate needed (which means a black candidate is needed) but you may NOT EVER use coloured, white, etc to advertise a job. You may also NEVER ask the race of the person on application.

sashh

Many years ago I did 20 years as a union rep so I was fairly well upto speed on changing terms and descriptives.

At one point you had white people and everyone else was categorised as black - that was in the beginings of fervent PC-ness. I often wondered what my predominantly asian collegues thought about that.

In the 80's there was a completely daft PC movement that seemed to have a licence to find everything and everyone offensive and change acceptable terms accordingly.

Brain storming was offensive to epileptics (apparently) and became "thought showers" for a while - I have no idea if aqua-phobes found that offensive though . I'm sure if I looked hard enough I would have found one.

givatago makes a salient point. As a person of certain ethnicity, her mother choses to use the term coloured and isn't offfended by it. Highly rude IMHO to say her mother is 'ignorant' and tell her how she should view her own cultural heritage. Plenty of black people use the N word - and we are fed all this bullshit about 'reclaiming the word'. Sorry but if a black man can call another black man a N, then so should I be allowed to. To say it's exclusively for black useage is an 'ism' in it's self.

FWIW - Black History Week - as was pointed out by a West African pupil - patronising in the extreme for whites to be telling her about her own history. So not everyone enjoys radical PCness. Some people would like to be treated as equal, not more equal or less equal - just equal.